MOSCOW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - Liberia has signed a landmark deal with Norway, which pledged to pay the country $ 150 million in exchange for a promise to completely end deforestation by 2020, BBC News reported Tuesday.
"We hope Liberia will be able to cut emissions and reduce poverty at the same time," Jens Frolich Holte, a political adviser to the Norwegian government, told BBC News.
In 2012, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf allowed companies to cut down more than half of the country's forest trees. The move was met with protests and international criticism, leading to the decision being altered shortly. But since then, illegal tree-cutting has remained common practice in the country.
Liberia is currently struggling to fight the outbreak of the Ebola virus, which started in southern Guinea at the end of 2013 and soon spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Scientists speculate that the Ebola virus could have been caused by the devastating effects of Liberia's widespread deforestation.
Earlier this month, Norway tripled its budget against the outbreak of the Ebola virus by committing a further $9 million to international efforts to contain the disease and its further transmission.
The death toll from the Ebola is estimated to be more than 2,600. There is no officially approved medication for the Ebola virus, and experts claim prevention is the only cure. Several countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, are currently working on vaccines.
